


The Perfect Ring

by afteriwake



Series: The Best Laid Plans [13]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Dreams, Friendship, Gen, Inanimate Objects, Male-Female Friendship, Mentioned Molly Hooper/Leonard McCoy, Objects From Dreams, Shopping, Wedding Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 18:09:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5976337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McCoy has decided he wants to ask Molly to marry him, and for that, he needs the perfect engagement ring, so he asks Mary to come with him to look. While out, Mary stumbles across the perfect ring for her friend...which also happens to be the exact same ring from a dream McCoy had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perfect Ring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So this was originally part of a series written for **sideofrawr** , the "[Stuff Of Improbable Legends](http://archiveofourown.org/series/351062)" series, which is based off a PSL roleplay game we're in which has Leonard McCoy/Molly Hooper as one of the main ships. Unfortunately, at the time I wrote this fic, we ended up not having a lot of our game canon for them set and it changed drastically, so I pulled this and three stories out of the series and rewrote them and set them up as their own trilogy. So as this was a belated birthday present for her, I will keep the birthday wishes here and hope that the rest of her year goes well!

He was going to do it. Sometime over the last few months, it had settled in his mind that while the relationship he had with Molly was nice, while living with her was pretty good, it wasn’t exactly what he wanted. He’d come to the realization he wanted to get married again, try it all over again, this time with Molly. He knew here was always the chance it could all go to hell, that something could happen to one of them, but at least for now it was what he wanted, and he was fairly sure she’d want the same thing.

He had the ring his grandmother had given him to give to the woman he chose for his wife. Thankfully she’d never approved of his ex and knew he might do better a second time, so it had been left to him, but somehow it didn’t seem quite right. He didn’t know why. It was a gorgeous ring, he supposed. Molly would love it and the history behind it because that was the kind of person she was, but he wanted to see if he could get her something that was more…her.

And who better to help with that than one of her best friends?

Mary had looked absolutely giddy at the prospect of helping out with helping to look for the ring. She’d arrived just when he had so she got to see it all unfold. She’d taken the weirdness of his arrival in stride, which surprised him; of all of Molly’s friends, she seemed to take in _all_ of the situation with nothing more than a “You like her, you’ll treat her well, doesn’t matter you’re from the future and alternate universe, just snog her already” attitude. That was probably why he liked her a hell of a lot more than anyone else Molly was friends with.

“Okay, so nothing flashy, nothing big and nothing super expensive,” he said as the two of them made their way into the jewelers a few weeks before Valentine’s Day. He wanted to propose on the holiday since that was their anniversary but if a better opportunity popped up he wasn’t going to let it slip by.

Mary nodded. “I think we’ll be able to find something suitable, Leonard,” she replied with a smile. “Trust me, Molly is very easy to please.”

“I don’t want to _please_ her. I want to _impress_ her. Dazzle her. If I can get her to cry happy tears when she sees the ring, that’s a bonus,” he said.

Mary grinned and shook her head. “I’ll just imagine what I’d like and then attune it to Molly’s tastes. We’re similar enough.”

“Which is why I brought you. Sally might be down to earth but you never know. Mrs. Hudson would pick out the most expensive of what I could afford, I’d bet, and Anthea would probably pick out something ostentatious. And the guys…well, I don’t think they know her tastes in jewelry at all.” Mary gave a small snort at that and McCoy relaxed. Mary got it. Good.

“Don’t worry. I’ll pick out something she can wear to Barts as well, if she chooses to wear her ring while she’s at work,” Mary said with a nod. They were greeted by someone who worked in the store and then taken over to the engagement rings. Mary took charge almost immediately asking first to see the diamond and sapphire rings, knowing Molly’s fondness for blue, and then going through each one critically. None of them seemed right to him and, apparently, none seemed right to her. Then they moved on to the strictly diamond rings and once again, none seemed to be quite what they were looking for.

They’d been there over an hour when McCoy shook his head as the man walked away to get another tray of rings, this one with rubies. “This seems like a waste of time,” he said quietly to Mary.

“There are other jewelers, you know,” she replied, looking around. She was about to say something else and then zeroed in on a sign. “Leonard, they have antique rings here.”

He perked up a bit at that. “Huh.”

“Molly would adore a ring with a bit of history,” Mary said. “And there are some fascinating types that have been made over the years.” She drifted over to where the sign was to look that the display. He joined her after a moment, his eyes flicking over most of them. “What about that lovely white gold and amethyst one?”

He looked to where her finger was pointing and his eyes bulged slightly. He couldn’t believe it. It was the ring from a dream he’d had, the one that made him realize he was in love with Molly even though he hadn’t even had the brass ones to ask her out on a legitimate date. He’d done so the very next day, thanks to the meddling of certain friends, and now here he was nearly a year later, staring at damn near the exact same ring. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said softly.

“What?” Mary asked.

“That ring was in a dream of mine, about a year ago. Dream me proposed to dream Molly with it,” he said, looking at Mary as the man came back with the other rings.

“I think that’s absolutely a sign you need to purchase that ring,” Mary said, looking at him with widened eyes. “That’s a sign if ever I heard one.”

McCoy nodded and then looked over at the salesperson. “I think I found the ring I want,” he said. Then man nodded and went to go take the tray back. Then he turned back to Mary. “You really think she’s going to like it?”

“It’s understated and classy, which is very much her style,” Mary said with a nod. “She doesn’t exactly _need_ a diamond ring, as she appreciates unique things, and this has history, which will make it more meaningful. Yes, I do believe it could be the perfect ring. Now the question becomes, when are you going to propose?”

“I was thinking Valentine’s Day, to mark the one-year anniversary of our first real date,” he said. “I thought she’d appreciate that.”

“Oh, that does sound lovely,” Mary said with a smile. “Do you have anything planned?”

“Dinner out at Hakkasan Mayfair if I can get a table, walk along Hyde Park…I was considering proposing at Barts since that’s where I asked her out but I figured I could do just as well at her flat.”

Mary laughed softly. “I don’t know, there’s a bit of charm in filling up her office with flowers and proposing there,” she said. “I think she’d appreciate it.”

“What are your plans?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. John said he has plans and he’s not giving me any hint at all. I think he’s going to play hooky at the surgery, though, so you may have a long day that day.”

“What a swell guy,” McCoy grumbled.

Mary chuckled. “I’ll make sure he repays you handsomely. And he will, if I tell him about this,” she said, gesturing to the ring.

“He is a nice guy like that,” McCoy said with a nod. 

“Yes. He does have quite the romantic streak,” Mary said with a warm grin.

The man came over and got the ring out for them. The two of them looked at it and Mary tried it on, her finger being just a bit smaller than Molly’s. She gave it her seal of approval and McCoy had to admit it looked better in real life than it had in the dream. The salesman told him a bit about the ring and he knew he’d enjoy passing on the history to Molly when she asked, along with the story of why it meant so much to him.

When they were done they left the shop and he took it out to look at it in the light. Mary looked over at it. “You really think she’s going to like it?” he asked as the diamonds on the band sparkled in the sunlight.

“She’s going to love it,” Mary said, giving his arm a squeeze. He shut the lid and slipped it into his coat pocket before they headed off to get some coffee. He really hoped he didn’t much up the proposal or anything like that because Molly deserved the best, she really did.


End file.
